Horton Lodge Community Special School, in Leek, is halfway to its £11,337 target which is needed to buy a permanent Eye Gaze machine. This will allow the school’s 60 pupils with physical disabilities and additional needs to communicate through eye movements to voice their opinions and access new forms of learning.
The Tobii Dynavox TD I Series Eye Gaze, which is specifically designed to support conditions such as cerebral palsy and Rett syndrome, is fitted with a specialist eye tracking camera mounted on a screen and picks up slight eye movements to select words from various categories which the computer can then voice to communicate with staff or peers.
Emily Osborne, communication lead at Horton Lodge Community Special School, said the team were now hopeful they could raise the remaining £4,800 needed to introduce the technology to the school by the end of the year to benefit pupils aged between aged 5 to 11.